Posted 2nd November 2016

Not long now until the John Lewis 2016 Christmas advert is on, the first showing of the Coco-Cola Holidays are Coming advert and the shops are full of Christmas gifts, decorations and adverts.

Wait, the shops are already full of Christmas stuff and its only November!? Every year there are complaints about shops being full of Christmas merchandise and signs way too early – people like to keep Christmas special, preserve the magic and build up to December.

And that is very understandable, last night driving into Birmingham I passed a house that already has its Christmas tree and decorations up! At home, nothing remotely festive goes up until 1st December and you have drunk your first Advent Calendar Gin.

Except in the office.

All the website orders are picked and sent out from here and in October we have a bit of a sort out and shift around to make room for the Christmas cards. November and December are our two biggest months on the website with people looking for some rude, funny or offensive Christmas cards to send their co-workers, friends and family.

Whilst a lot of people complain about Christmas starting too early retailers do it because customers want to spread the cost or they like to be organised – a friend had a huge pile of presents all wrapped last month already, and the Christmas Cake has of course been made. I think she wants to get the alcohol in it up to the kind of level Mary Berry approves of on The Great British Bake Off.

We were already already picking orders with Christmas cards in September and October and once the calendar ticks over into November it’s practically Lapland here in the office. Though we save playing “The Best Christmas Album In The World … Ever!” until December – we can only take so much Slade and Wizzard.

But if you think end of October and November is too early for Christmas, next summer best not go to Selfridges & Co on Oxford Street in London. This year their Christmas hall covers almost all the sixth floor of the huge store, which is not surprising with over 50,000 decorations on display to choose from! And to make sure you have enough time to choose it opening this year on 1st August! For Selfridges they have a big market for tourists; it’s an iconic store and people love to buy a decoration or two from such places. We always liked to get a Christmas decoration every year from Macy’s or Disney World as a little tradition.

So to get you in the mood (and me as need to start designing 2017 soooooon) here’s some of my most popular Christmas Cards this year.